Form a BYOD Policy Fit for the Future

Every business and IT department is well aware of the BYOD (Bring your own Device) trend and its seeming inevitability in the modern workplace, but not every organization may know how to plan for an increasing number of employees bringing smartphones, tablets and other gadgets to work. Gartner has called this trend the “most radical change” in the culture of client computing and economics in decades, according to eWEEK, and analyst David Willis said it can be used to improve employee satisfaction. However, he noted that attitudes may change as employers get more aggressive with a policy, thus there needs to be planning for the future when implementing BYOD.

Some best practices for future proofing BYOD, according to Willis, include:
– Democratize technology to allow employees to reach new efficiencies and increase productivity across the company
– Look for opportunities that can drive innovation
– Create a clear strategy that employees will be able to easily read and use
– Iron out billing and any employee reimbursement issues early on
– Deputize a specific person or task force responsible for BYOD security
– Refocus the CIO to ensure the BYOD program is a priority and not just another checkbox concern

Forrester Research Analyst Chenxi Wang told CIO.com that there will be hope and new challenges that arise from the BYOD trend. There are four trends that will be especially important in the near future that will affect the future of the enterprise and consumer regarding mobile security.

“These trends paint a picture of seamless, smart-device security capabilities that are embedded in increasingly sophisticated mobile-cloud services, as well as those that are able to integrate with business models enabled by pervasive mobility,” she told the website.

The four changes include smartphone and tablets becoming primary computing devices mobile virtualization as a security technique, more businesses and apps exclusively utilizing HTML5 and identity-based services emerging as privacy protection tools. More self service analytics will be utilized in 2012, which Wang said will likely mean litigation cases on mobile plans. It is not very likely that regulators will be making laws or compliance rules any tougher on privacy in the mobile world, but consumers and clients will start to take increased responsibility in protecting themselves when working with these devices.